Using Storytelling in Project Management

 

We as project managers are facing an additional major challenge with our project team...

The clash of generations (baby boomers, generation X, Y and millennium ), four generations (as far as I remember until now...) working together ... that have different behavior characteristics in relation to others.

The consequence of this is the increasing complexity for us project managers is to understand and communicate effectively with the them, for example a  project manager in age of 60 years old, and a team with the following ages: 20 , 35 and 45 so this becomes very complex.

Imagine another situation where you request to a staff member to invest his time to delivery a set of tasks from a task list which you have previously communicated to him but he could not do the job properly.

Why ?

What happened is that the storytelling was not applied , that is, the lack of a "proper narrative" did not cause engagement of your colleague. In that case he had less chance to remember and probably could not get involved or repeat the appropriate behavior for the completion of that work, this happened for two factors combined:

Communication noise and clash of generations 

When we explain what is expected to a colleague we should explain it in a narrative way (with the procedure included)  and providing an example on when and what the situation that happened.

Read for example the text below: "Once upon a time, a group of people who were outraged at how the failed software projects. Then they had begin to study more about the nature of the software and found that developing software is an extremely intellectual work and not manual or repetitive. Thus, the Taylor models concerning job specialization and motivation of workers which were inherited in software management would not be the most recommended best practices. In fact, it would be virtually opposite. "

This is storytelling!

If you succeed to create an emotional connection with your team member  your colleague will be able to feel and be excited about this narrative as a consequence engagement and commitment will come together. 

Remember the stories you heard from your mother and grandma when you were young ? Same approach !

This concept of "storytelling" is actually already well known in the business world with the name of Storytelling, a strong tool for corporate communication both internally and externally as we begin to use in projects.

Projects are communicated and messages are transmitted through stories, creating an emotional bond, facilitating the understanding and memorization. This technique is high precisely because of the new challenges in the workplace, generated by the transformation that technology has brought us (is the new trend for the coming years, for which we must prepare ourselves).

The more we use social media, more will need to incorporate storytelling techniques to motivate, lead and work with the new generations. 

Concluding:

A good project leader who can engage and explain to your project member what should be done in a certain project procedure or how to act in the face of certain situations before meet a customer or in how the conduct of project activities;instead of using a list actions that must be done, it uses an example ( a story ) in which those procedures were applied achieving greater efficiency .

I hope you had enjoyed it !
 

Nelson Rosamilha,PMP®,BB®,Prince 2 Practitioner®
[email protected]
Twitter: nelsonrosamilha
http://br.linkedin.com/in/rosamilha